1971 Map of Lexington

About this map

Metropolitan State Hospital and the Fernald State School occupy prominent grounds in the western portion of this 1970s landscape, reflecting the heavy concentration of institutional land use in the suburban corridor northwest of Boston. The map reveals a transition from the established residential street grids of Arlington and Belmont toward the increasingly suburbanized hills of Lexington and Burlington. Substantial academic and healthcare footprints are visible throughout, from Bentley College to the Mc Lean Hospital and the Northeastern Univ Suburban Campus. The burgeoning commercial landscape of the era is anchored by the Burlington Mall Shopping Center near the intersection of major transit arteries. Natural features including Mystic Lake, Horn Pond, and the Middlesex Fells Reservation offer a contrast to the dense network of named hills like Mt Gilboa and Whipple Hill.